gesilaus was so
powerful in the state, and so renowned for wisdom and courage, that
they gladly made use of him as their leader in the war, and also
employed him to settle a certain constitutional difficulty which arose
about the political rights of the survivors of the battle. They were
unwilling to disfranchise all these men, who were so numerous and
powerful, because they feared that if so they would raise a revolution
in the city. For the usual rule at Sparta about those who survive a
defeat is, that they are incapable of holding any office in the state;
nor will any one give them his daughter in marriage; but all who meet
them strike them, and treat them with contempt. They hang about the
city in a squalid and degraded condition, wearing a cloak patched with
pieces of a different colour, and they shave one half of their beards,
and let the other half grow. Now, at the present crisis it was thought
that to reduce so many citizens to this condition, especially when the
state sorely required soldiers, would be an absurd proceeding; and
consequently, Agesilaus was appointed lawgiver, to decide upon what
was to be done. He neither altered the laws, nor proposed any new
ones, but laid down his office of lawgiver at once, with the remark,
that the laws must be allowed to sleep for that one day, and
afterwards resume their force. By this means he both preserved the
laws, retained the services of the citizens for the state, and saved
them from infamy. With the intention of cheering up the young men, and
enabling them to shake off their excessive despondency, he led an army
into Arcadia. He was careful to avoid a battle, but captured a small
fort belonging to the people of Mantinea, and overran their territory;
thus greatly raising the spirits of the Spartans, who began to pluck
up courage, and regard their city as not altogether ruined.

XXXI. After this, Epameinondas invaded Laconia with the army of the
Thebans and their allies, amounting in all to no less than forty
thousand heavy-armed soldiers. Many light troops and marauders
accompanied this body, so that the whole force which entered Laconia
amounted in all to seventy thousand men. This took place not less than
six hundred years after the Dorians had settled in Lacedaemon; and
through all that time these were the first enemies which the country
had seen; for no one before this had dared to invade it. Now, however,
the Thebans ravaged the whole district with fire and s